News

Engineering students dominated the University of Waterloo men’s curling team that earned national gold with a 7-5 victory over the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Kamloops, B.C.

Skip Jake Walker, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, second Jordan Moreau, a management engineering student, third Edward Cyr, a mechanical engineering master's student, and alternate Nathan Ransom, an undergraduate mechanical engineering student, and other members of the team, captured top spot in the 2013 Men’s Curling Championship in a rematch of last year's finals.

Hydro One has announced a new partnership with the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Western University to increase enrolment and career opportunities for female students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The 2012 Waterloo Engineering Awards dinner held on November 22 honoured engineering's exceptional students, alumni and a friend of the faculty. More than 2,500 students received awards this year for everything from top marks to extracurricular activities such as leadership, community engagement, and involvement in athletics.

A number of awards were distributed at the event, including:

Brendan McDonald, a chemical engineering (nanotechnology) master’s student, captured the second place 2012 Excellence in Thermoset Polymer Research Award for his paper entitled Biomimetic Micro-Structured Surfaces: Pattern Transfer and Fabrication of Icephobic Epoxy Surfaces. McDonald, who is supervised by chemical engineering professor Boxin Zhao, presented his paper at the Thermoset Resin Formulators Association (TRFA) annual meeting held at the end of October in Orlando, Florida. 

Waterloo Engineering students had their chance to impress Canadian business leaders on the October 31 all-student episode of CBC's Dragons' Den.  Hongwei Liu, an electrical and computer engineering student, and Desmond Choi, a  University of Waterloo arts student, pitched their company MappedIn's smartphone application that helps people navigate through malls. 
 

A paper written by Rafael Lotufo, an electrical and computer doctoral candidate, Zeeshan Malik, a computer science master's student, and their supervisor Krzysztof Czarnecki, an electrical and computer engineering professor, won the best paper award at the International Conference on Software Maintenance held in Riva del Garda, Italy. Their paper, entitled Modelling the ‘Hurried’ Bug Report Reading Process to Summarize Bug Reports, was singled out from 181 submissions. 

Nigel Swytink-Binnema, a mechanical engineering master's student, won the top award in the poster presentation/competition at the Canadian Wind Energy Association meeting and annual research meeting of the NSERC-funded Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet) held in Toronto from October 15 to 18. The poster was judged by faculty members from the 16 universities participating in the cross-Canada network. Swytink-Binnema is supervised by WESNet member David Johnson who is a Waterloo mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor.

Willem Petersen, a Waterloo systems design engineering doctoral candidate, won the best presentation award at the recent 2012 International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems conference held in Pretoria, South Africa. Petersen presented the work he's collaborated on with John McPhee, his doctoral supervisor, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). They have developed advanced models for planetary rovers and wheels on soft (Martian) soils to help the CSA design, control, and plan for future rover missions.

Two engineering students will be honoured with the university's  Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies Designation at fall convocation on October 20.  One of three of the designations for a master's student will be awarded to Mohammad Rostami of electrical and computer engineering. Thomasz Glawdel of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will receive one of the three designations for a PhD student.